COUNCIL HOPEFULS ADDRESS ISSUES AT FORUM

Escondido charter, city’s economy
at top of the list

ESCONDIDO 
City Council candidates tackled questions on city issues ranging from Police Department staffing to the city charter ballot measure in a forum Wednesday morning hosted by the Escondido Chamber of Commerce.

Seven candidates are vying for two seats on the council, including incumbent council members Olga Diaz, elected in 2008, and Michael Morasco, appointed in 2010. Also running are Richard Alegre, an Air Force veteran and aircraft mechanic; Michael Collins, small-business consultant; Deborah Goodrich, who works in financial services; Don Greene, a web designer and mobile home park activist; and Carmen Miranda, a school office manager who ran unsuccessfully for the council in 2010.

Six of the seven candidates participated in the 7 a.m. forum attended by about three dozen people in the Council Chambers at City Hall. Moderator Kevin Svetich, the chamber’s government affairs chairman, said Miranda was absent because of work.

Svetich posed questions about the candidates’ positions on seven issues: two November ballot measures, the general plan update and the charter city proposal; funding for the California Center for the Arts, Escondido; how to make the city business-friendly to provide jobs and generate revenue; at-large vs. by-district elections; the importance of balanced budgets and maintenance of financial reserves; and a plan to address Police Department cuts.

Morasco and Alegre expressed support for both ballot measures. Morasco said he is “an avid supporter” of the general plan update, calling it “well-constructed” and “extremely timely.”

Elements of the general plan, a city’s blueprint for growth, require voter approval because of the 1998’s Proposition S, which gives voters the final say on land-use issues such as increasing housing density or zoning changes. A significant feature in the update is the proposal to redesignate up to 450 acres of residential land for employment use. Supporters say this will attract business and boost job growth.

Goodrich, who’s served as a credit union CEO, said is worried about population growth and the types of jobs the city would attract under the proposed zoning changes.

A charter, often called a city’s constitution, first was proposed as a way to save taxpayers money and give more local control over municipal matters. The Escondido charter proposal includes a provision to change the city’s at-large election system to voting by district.

Alegre said the charter will “remove some of the hold the state has on cities.” Collins, Diaz, Goodrich and Greene, while not entirely opposed to a charter concept, were critical of Escondido’s four-page document, with Collins calling it vague.

Diaz said the document was not “guided by the community,” and Greene suggested the creating a citizens commission to guide a charter process. Morasco defended the document’s size and content, saying “it provides in very simple language the ability to govern ourselves.” The candidates expressed support for the arts center as an asset to the city, but Alegre, Goodrich and Green said the facility should be self-supporting. The city pays an annual management fee and utilities for the center, which hosts several free annual community events. Diaz said her biggest problem with the center is the types of shows and performers it attracts. “I can’t find anything I want to pay to go see there,” she said. Collins said the center is “a jewel in the city.”

On the hot-button topic of changing to district elections — the city is facing a lawsuit over its at-large election system — Collins said the voters should decide, while Alegre, Goodrich and Morasco said they do not support carving the city into voting districts, calling it divisive. Diaz and Greene support such a change.

All agreed on the importance of balanced city budgets and healthy financial reserves. However, Collins, Diaz and Greene said recent council decisions to make cuts and not use reserves resulted in the loss of such services as a library branch were poor budget decisions.

Regarding an understaffed Police Department, candidates said that public safety is a top priority. Diaz, Goodrich and Greene said a recent pension reform action for the department has harmed recruitment and retention of officers.